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Indianapolis Colts Football

While Trai Essex has the familiarity of coaches within the organization, he admitted on Wednesday that he doesn’t know a lot of his new teammates.

Running back Mewelde Moore and center A.Q. Shipley are the only two Colts that have called Essex a teammate in the past.

Essex comes over to the Colts after seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and he spent the last four of those years playing with Moore. Shipley spent the 2011 season the Steelers practice squad.

The success that Essex and Moore shared together in Pittsburgh includes a pair of Super Bowl appearances in 2008 and 2010.

Both of those seasons the Steelers went 12-4 in the regular season while capturing Super Bowl XLIII.

What Essex doesn’t know yet about his Colts teammates, he does know a lot about the state he is once again calling home. He went to Fort Wayne Harding High School and won a state championship in basketball in 2002.

Essex started his final 37 games at Northwestern University before being chosen by the Steelers in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft.

There weren’t many ways to turn in the Colts locker room in trying to find someone who is familiar with Essex from a playing standpoint but Moore offered some strong words when talking about a man he has called a teammate for now the last five seasons.

“We are getting a guy who can play three positions,” Moore said of Essex “A guy who’s smart, physical, a strong individual and a great teammate. You’ll love to be around him and just everything he brings to the table is definitely going to help us win ball games.”